Advent Prayer Service and Reflections on Peace and Light

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Explore a prayer service focusing on seeking God's love, preparing for peace, and promoting harmony. Reflect on Scriptures, personal intentions for peace, and insights on peace-making shared by Ron Rolheiser.

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Advent Prayer Service When we see Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they will see God. Matthew 5:8

O Come, O Come Emmanuel Enya Open Up The Brilliance O Come Divine Messiah (Traditional) Christ be Our Light Bernadette Farrell

Loving God, we find your love in the darkness and in the light. Help us to see beyond ourselves to firmly walk your path of love. May we know your peace in our hearts as we prepare for your coming. We know that when we see your love manifest in your children, peace reigns. Inspire us to promote this peace in our world. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace. Amen +

Scripture Reading A Reading from the Book of Isaiah The word that Isaiah son of Amozsaw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the themountain of the Lord s house shall be established as the highest mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! The word of the Lord. All: Thanks be to God.

Questions for Personal Reflection How can you be an instrument of peace during this Advent season? Where do you see the places of darkness in need of light? What hopes do you have for nations to put down their swords? Is this possible in our world today? How can we contribute?

SOME RULES FOR PEACE-MAKING By Ron Rolheiser, OMI Perhaps the deepest imperative within the entire moral life is that of being non-violent. It undergirds everything else: Thou shalt not violate others! So reads the most basic of all commandments. But, for all its importance, it is a certain moral minimum. Beyond being non-violent, we are asked to be, positively, peace-makers. However, all efforts at peace-making must be predicated on non-violence. Violent efforts that try for peace are themselves part of the problem. With this in mind, let me paraphrase Jim Wallis who draws these principles from such great peace- makers as Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Thomas Merton, and William Stringfellow. Wallis suggests that if our efforts at peace-making are to be fruitful, both within the intimate circles of our primary communities as well as in the wider circles of social justice, we must truly remain non- violent. That implies the following:

All our actions for peace must be rooted in the power of love and the power of truth and must be done for the purpose of making that power known and not for making ourselves known. Our motivation must always be to open people to the truth and not to show ourselves as right and them as wrong. Our best actions are those which admit our complicity and are marked by a spirit of genuine repentance and humility. Our worst actions are those that seek to demonstrate our own righteousness, our purity, and our moral distance from the violence we are protesting. Whenever our pride overtakes our protest we are simply repeating in a political form the self-righteousness judgement of the fundamentalist: I m saved and you are not!

Questions for Guided Reflection Considering Ron Rolheiser'sthoughts, why do we need to see ourselves as well as our neighbourto truly achieve peace? What is it about the Advent season that calls us to see our faith in a new way? The destruction of creation is a form of violence. Unfortunately, the Advent-Christmas season becomes very commercial. How can you invite yourself to go beyond the consumerism of the season?

God of light, Help us to know that when we see your children as ourselves, You bring us to a greater love. Guide us to understand that when we see Your creation as vital to our communities, we support the wellbeing of others. Empower us to believe that when we see ourselves as peacemakers, we can make the world a better place. Give us grace in this Advent season to truly walk in Your light. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen. +